Kid Icarus NES

Description

Kid Icarus NES Game Cartridge

Kid Icarus was released for the NES in 1987. It was developed and published by Nintendo. The game was also the first Kid Icarus game by Nintendo. Kid Icarus is considered one of Nintendo’s cult classics. Some reviewers gave praise to the game for the music and the mixture of the gameplay elements from multiple gaming genres. It has been in many lists of best games from Nintendo Power and IGN. It has spawned two sequels, one for Game Boy in 1991 and another for the 3DS in 2012. The game also has multiple endings and will depend on the performance of the player. The player at the game’s end will be presented with either some headgear or will be transformed to a full-fledged angel.

The game is set in a place called Angel Land, a fantasy world that has a theme of Greek Mythology. The backstory to Kid Icarus was described inside the game’s instruction booklet. Back before the game’s events, two goddesses ruled the Earth. Those goddess’s name were Palutena, the Queen of Light and Medusa, the Queen of darkness. Palutena would bestow people with light and make the humans happy. Medusa, however, did not like the humans and would dry up their crops and turn them into stone. Palutena became enraged from this, then transforming Medusa, making her a monster. Medusa was then banished into the underworld. Wanting revenge, Medusa started conspiring with the underworld monsters to take control of Palutena’s sky temple.

Medusa launches an attack by surprise, stealing all three of the sacred treasures, which were Wings of Pegasus, Light Arrows, and Mirror Shield. This deprived the army of Palutena of their power. Her soldiers started being turned into stones by Medusa, and Palutena was eventually defeated in the battle, being then imprisoned deep in her sky temple. Using the last of her powers, she sent out a bow with arrows to Pit, who was a young angel. Pit escaped the prison inside the underworld, then set out to rescue Palutena and save the Earth. Throughout the story, Pit will retrieve all three of the sacred treasures that fortress gatekeeper’s have at a stage’s end. Pit will then equip the treasures onto himself and storms into Palutena’s sky temple. He then defeats Medusa, rescuing Palutena.

Kid Icarus is a platformer with RPG elements. The player takes control of Pit and will travel through levels containing obstacles, items, and monsters. The player’s main weapon is the bow and it has infinite arrows which can upgrade with three different collectible power up items. A crystal guard will shield Pit from the enemies, flaming arrows that will hit multiple enemies, and a holy bow that will increase the arrows’ range. The upgrades only work when the player has high enough health. The game will keep track of a player’s score. If the player has enough points by a level’s end, the game will increase their health bar.

During the stages, doors can be entered by the player which will access a total of seven different kinds of chambers. Black markets and stores will offer items for exchanging hearts. Defeated monsters will leave behind hearts for the player to collect. The treasure chambers will contain items, the enemy nests will give the player the opportunity of earning more hearts, and the hot springs will restore the player’s health. Inside a god’s chamber, Pit’s bow and arrow strength can be increased and will depend on many factors like the amount of defeated enemies and how much damage was taken during a battle. Inside a training chamber, the player will receive one of three power up items if they pass an endurance test.

The game will be split into three different stages. These three stages are the underworld, Earth, being the overworld, and sky world. Every stage will encompass three unidirectional levels and then a fortress. The underworld and sky world levels will have Pit climbing to get up top, while the levels on the surface will be side scrolling. The fortresses that appear at a level’s end will be labyrinths that have rooms that don’s scroll. The player will need to defeat the gatekeeper boss. While inside a fortress, the player can buy a pencil, check sheet, and a torch to help guide them through a labyrinth. The hammer is a one time use item that will be able to destroy the stone statues that will free flying soldiers called Centurions. These will help aid Pit during boss battles. For every boss destroyed, Pit will receive a sacred treasure that will be needed to get to the final fourth stage, Palutena’s sky temple. The last part of the game will abandon the platformer style and will resemble a shooter type game that scrolls.